A senior Chinese military official has been fired as an investigation into “serious disciplinary violations” is underway, Beijing said Thursday, the latest senior official to fall in a sweeping crackdown on corruption in the country's armed forces .
The ruling Communist Party has “decided to suspend Miao Hua from office pending an investigation,” Wu Qian, a spokesperson for Beijing’s defense ministry, told a news briefing.
Wu did not provide further details about the accusations against Miao, an admiral and member of Beijing's powerful Central Military Commission (CMC).
But “serious disciplinary violations” is commonly used by Chinese authorities as a euphemism for corruption.
Miao served on the CMC alongside five other men – including President Xi Jinping at the top – and headed its most important office, the Political Work Department.
Miao was described as a “close ally” of Xi and a “trusted interlocutor” between the military and the party by Lyle Morris, a senior fellow at the Asia Society.
Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on alleged corruption within the armed forces over the past year, with Xi this month ordering the military to root out corruption and strengthen its “preparedness for war.”
The intensity of the anti-corruption campaign has been driven in part by fears that endemic corruption could affect China's ability to fight a future war, Bloomberg reported citing U.S. officials this year.
The investigation into Miao “is part of Xi's increased surveillance of the armed forces,” said Chong Ja Ian, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.
His dismissal reveals “the persistence of corruption and discipline problems across the (armed forces) system, despite Xi's considerable efforts,” said Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
– Strengthening repression –
At the same press briefing, Wu denied reports that Defense Minister Dong Jun was under investigation for corruption.
“The reports in question are pure fabrications,” Wu said.
“The rumor mongers are ill-intentioned. China expresses its deep dissatisfaction with such defamatory behavior,” he added.
A former navy commander, Dong was appointed defense minister in December following the surprise dismissal of his predecessor Li Shangfu, just seven months after taking office.
Li was later expelled from the Communist Party for crimes including suspicion of corruption, state media said. He has not been seen in public since.
His predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was also expelled from the party and referred to prosecutors for alleged corruption.
The country's secretive Rocket Force – which oversees China's vast arsenal of strategic missiles, both conventional and nuclear – is under particularly intense scrutiny.
In July, a senior Chinese Rocket Force official, Sun Jinming, was expelled from the party and placed under investigation for corruption.
At least two other high-ranking officers linked to the Rocket Force, a relatively new unit of the Chinese military, have also been removed from their posts for corruption.
“We will see many more investigations into (the armed forces) and it will not stop with Miao Hua or Li Shangfu,” Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, told AFP .
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